Powerdvd or Zoom command line switches -Help

[jlcrawford]

Hi
I am returnibg to Xlobby after a three year gap from HTPC.
I have ripped a few dvds and want to play them using xlobby as tge front end. As I intend to rip HD and Bluray I have Powerdvd as the player but whilst I have followed a couple of guides and am getting it to launch from the play command within the dvd - the movie does not play ie the file,playlist path are not transferring to powerdvd. I am unsure as to what the command line switches should read.
I have had zoom playing but I have to register the filters every time I load it and I am not getting 5.1 (only 2 channel)

Any help would be appreciated.
regards

[Marbles_00]

I have had zoom playing but I have to register the filters every time I load it and I am not getting 5.1 (only 2 channel)

What are the codecs you have loaded when using zoom? On my HTPC, I'm only using are ffdshow (for upscaling), AC3Filter for well...AC3/DTS, and Dscaler for video, I also have installed the Haali splitter for HD, and the Real Alternative Video/Audio Decoder/Splitters (which also give you Media Player Classic) Links below:

AC3Filter

Dscaler

Haali

Real Alternatives

If I recall, ffdshow is linked somewhere on this site.

Hope this helps

[jlcrawford]

I have zoom playing using the ffdshow but every time zoom starts it asks me to register the filters so its a pain.
I got powerdvd working but only with iso files.
I could do with knowing the parameters for powerdvd or knowing what the haali splitter does.

cheers

[mememe]

Marbles, why are you using AC3filter if you have FFdshow installed? FFdshow does the same thing, and generally does it better.

[Marbles_00]

Are you using a demo version of zoom? Or the basic verion? The Pro version (and Pro+WMA) shouldn't be asking you for anything. The reason I'm on Zoom so much, just for the fact that the controls are integrated with xlobby (same with Theatertek).

knowing what the haali splitter does

It's more for HD content...I think for audio...but I'm still learning that aspect.

why are you using AC3filter if you have FFdshow installed? FFdshow does the same thing, and generally does it better.

Gracias, for the tip, I'm going to try it...generally I've just used ffdshow for upscaling, and I haven't messed with it more...now you've given me something more to experiment with.

[defrag]

The haali splitter tends to be used for mkv files (Matroska) which supports H.264. Zoom player downloads this for me by default and I tend to use it for HD Anime rips. Have a look here http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

[jji666]

FYI, PowerDVD's recent versions won't play HD DVD or Blu-Ray files off of the hard drive, in a misguided attempt to conform to the MPAA's concerns about pirated content. It will only play them off of the optical drives. A workaround is to create an ISO with the movie files in HD DVD or Blu Ray folder structure and then mount the ISO with Daemontools, then launch with PowerDVD. This also works with DVD-Audio disks.

Since Zoomplayer won't do anything with a Blu Ray or HD DVD disc, although it will play Blu Ray files directly (which is still a bit of a hassle since it plays all m2ts files as though they are all components of the movie, even the promos and features), I suggest you focus on getting PowerDVD to do this and then use Zoomplayer for DVDs and other non-optical format files. While this requires you to integrate two players, PowerDVD doesn't support Matroska and is not great for a few other common formats, and thus you need both to support everything you might want to play.

To use XL to control PowerDVD you have to use Girder since it won't directly accept any commands from XL. This is a bit complex but not too challenging in concept. ZP can be controlled directly from XL with the default skin.

I had all this integrated beautifully before the whole system crashed. Now I just need a free month to get it up and running again

[jlcrawford]

Hi
as for zoom I believe it is the pro-version but am still getting asked to register the filters every time I start to play a disk/image.
I already have powerdvd launching from Xlobby to play iso images which mount via daemon when selected.
Some of my rips are as video_ts and these do not pass to powerdvd when instructing xlobby to play - this is the command line switches I would like if anyone knows them.
As to HD-Dvd the version of Powerdvd which shipped with my combi drive (LG) plays the files ripped from anydvdhd without issue. But I havent tried to rip them to iso as this would be a new project which I will need advice on.
Thanks to all for the help

[jji666]

Your version of PowerDVD must not be the latest update/patch. Just be careful because if/when you do update, it won't play those files from the HDD any more.

I have had similar problems with Zoomplayer on rare occasions. It seems to ask repeatedly to install the right filter configuration for DVDs. Make sure that you've successfully registerd Zoom. It is a kind of any odd registration method, if I recall correctly.

As to PDVD command line switches, I am not sure that Cyberlink has ever said they support them, although I do think some folks have trial and error-wise figured out a few. PDVD is a pain to control, but there is a reasonable Girder configuration file for it. If you cannot figure out satisfactory command line switches, see what you can get done via Girder, which also plays well with XL (as long as you have all the right versions matching up).